Announcing Shopify's 3rd Build-A-Business Competition Winners

Today we’re thrilled to announce the five winners of our Build-A-Business competition.

During the 8 months of the competition period, over 10,000 entrepreneurs created new online businesses that sold more than $55 million in products. The five new businesses that sold the most over any two months of the competition each win a $50,000 US investment.

We sent each of the winners on a VIP trip to New York City to meet with the industry experts who served as mentors to the participants throughout the competition (Timothy Ferriss, Daymond John, Tina Roth Eisenberg and Eric Ries). Here's a glimpse of their trip to NYC:

In addition to the grand prize investment and NYC trip, each winner gets a special one-hour media strategy training session with editors at Fast Company Magazine, and $20,000 toward digital advertising for their business.

Here’s a visual overview of the competition, including our five amazing winners. You can click on the image to view in full-screen.

We’re excited to see so many great ideas grow into successful businesses through this competition. Our winners really took it to the next level, combining brilliant products with savvy marketing to sell an amazing amount of products.

Here’s a look at our five winning stores, their cool products, and the entrepreneurs behind it all:

GameKlip is the brainchild of gamer-turned-inventor Ryan French, an Applied Computational Math Science student at the University of Washington. Frustrated by the inefficient game controllers on his phone, Ryan crafted a precision-moulded clip to connect a PlayStation controller to his smart phone, allowing for mobile game play with a full-sized controller.

Ryan's product was originally created from simple resources. He bought a few sheets of plastic and used an industrial-strength hairdryer to shape the clip that attached the game controller to his phone. He was amazed at how well his creation turned out. “The simple piece of plastic transformed my phone into a real gaming machine,” said Ryan. “It worked so well, I had to share my creation with the world.”

Ryan decided to share his invention the way any true gamer would - he created a short video with his phone camera. When other gamers saw the video, they wanted clips of their own. Ryan started taking pre-orders and was blown away by the response.

“The first wave of orders was very exciting, but overwhelming. In the beginning, GameKlip was all handmade and built to order, which meant I had to spend most of my time bending plastic into the correct shape and processing orders. I had no ecommerce or order processing software at that time, so everything was done with a spreadsheet. I was working 18-20 hours a day, seven days a week, to build, process, pack, and ship my orders. Something had to change!"

"Discovering Shopify was one of the big turning points for my business. It was easy to set up and drastically cut down my workload. To further my productivity I setup ShipStation to automate the process of taking an order, generating a shipping label, and keeping records. The massive increase in workflow productivity allowed me to focus more on my product, and less on the busy-work.”

Ryan used his newfound “free” time to take his business to the next level. He purchased an injection mold so he could contract out the manufacturing of his product, and ensure the quality of each GameKlip was exactly the same.

Ryan French is still developing new iterations of GameKlip, and continues to grow his business online. He has shipped his product to over 80 countries, and has big plans for the future.

Debbie Sterling raised $285,881 on Kickstarter to fund her groundbreaking product: a construction toy that encourages young girls to get into engineering, develop spatial skills and hone problem-solving abilities.

From Bob the Builder to Star Wars Lego sets, engineering toys have traditionally been marketed to little boys. Debbie, a University of Stanford Engineering graduate, came up with the idea for GoldieBlox while discussing her career choice with a fellow female engineer.

“We were discussing why we became engineers. My colleague grew up with three older brothers and played with their hand-me-down Lego and Lincoln Logs. When it came time to pick a major, engineering seemed like a great choice, and it never occured to her that it was a weird career for girls. I started to think that I had missed out. My parents didn’t buy me construction toys because they didn’t think I would like them. They thought of them as boy’s toys. If I had played with construction toys as a kid, I probably would have developed my passion for engineering much earlier.”

Debbie set out to find examples of construction toys in the “girls” sections of toy stores, and was disappointed to discover very few options. “I started thinking about all the little girls out there who could be great engineers but would never even consider it. When I walked down the pink isle in the toy store, I felt like I was back in the 1950s," said Debbie. "This was an amazing opportunity to open little girls’ eyes to the possibilities of engineering. I became obsessed and it was all I could think about, all I wanted to do.”

Debbie created the character of Goldie, a spirited female engineer, to be her toy line’s mascot. The line’s debut toy, “GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine,” turns construction into a game, where little girls must build a belt drive to help Goldie’s dog chase his tail.

Nella’s success wasn’t an accident – she experimented with several different brands and clothing lines before she decided on the Fresh-Tops line. “We started up with a couple of designs and just went from there. We really listened to what our fans wanted. We listened to their suggestions and just kept experimenting,” said Nella.

Nella chooses new pieces for the Fresh-Tops clothing line based on suggestions and requests made by her fans on Facebook and Twitter. This novel and progressive use of social media meant that Nella was able to produce the exact product her fans wanted. She attributes her success to the relationship between her fans and her business: “You really have to listen to what people want, and then give it to them. You have to be flexible and keep adapting to their needs.”

Gretta van Riel created this successful brand of tea in order to help people detoxify and lose weight. The teas, made from natural ingredients, are said to increase metabolism and even improve digestion, complexion, and sleep.

Gretta was working as the digital marketing manager at a large media agency in Melbourne, Australia, when she came up with her great idea. “I actually had a dream about the teatox,” said Gretta. “I woke up with a name, an idea and a vision, and made the website using Shopify the very next day. It was so great to be able to have an idea and go from conception to inception so quickly with the help of Shopify.”

Gretta developed her line of teas using all natural ingredients that help people shed unwanted weight by increasing metabolism and removing harmful toxins from the body.

It wasn’t long before the sales started flooding in, and Gretta had a difficult decision to make. “I had to choose between a steady job that I liked, or following SkinnyMe, which was really my passion. Luckily the sales started coming in quickly, and that helped me make up my mind.”

“There aren't many other detox products on the market that utilise only tea and that are completely natural. So the concept has caught on quite nicely. It helps that the product works really well, with many of our customers experiencing some truly incredible results. This has meant that our vision was able to spread very quickly via social media and word of mouth.”

Now SkinnyMe Teas are popular all over the world, with their most popular product being the Teatox pack, an all-natural detox program.

When Aron Slipacoff decided to create a store that sold Canadiana, he didn’t want it to be just another consumer website. Instead, he created a unique shopping experience where visitors can buy iconic Canadian items, and also get a taste of Canadian history and culture. The shop sells everything from mukluks to unique paintings by Group of Seven artist, Emily Carr. Even the service, which is prompt, friendly and trustworthy, is a truly Canadian experience.

The idea for the shop came out of Aron's deep love of Canadiana and his desire to share iconic Canadian products with the world. “I wanted to present Canada’s past in a new, contemporary way,” said Aron. “As someone who lived in the Canadian Arctic, I am really passionate about what Canada’s north offers the world geographically and culturally. I wanted people to experience the stories and products that are inspired by the north.”

Aron wanted his customers to understand why the Canadian products he sells are so special. “To fully appreciate a Canada Goose parka for example, you need to see its connection to Canada’s Arctic peoples, how Canada Goose works with Inuit elders on design, how the company gives back to these communities. You need a more complete picture of the uniquely Canadian connection to the product to really get the feel for what makes it iconic.”

So instead of launching a store that simply sold products, Aron built his shop to be a bit like a Canadian museum, with the history and stories of the product built into the shopping experience.

“Items like Canada Goose coats and Manitobah Mukluks are being sold and admired all over the world, but the Canadian stories behind the brands were left untold. There is a trend now where people want to become more knowledgeable about what they consume and spend money on. The marriage of these ideas was how CanadianIcons.ca was born.”

Aron also wanted his customers to experience what Canadian culture is so well-known for: its friendliness and warmth. So he decided to ship orders for free. “We thought about it and decided to offer 90-minute delivery in the nation’s capital, and we offered next-day delivery everywhere else in the country. Living up to that promise was a challenge. Through all of the Canadian weather and the holiday rush, we realized pretty fast that fulfillment required daily attention and diligence." Aron's focus on service is what sets Canadian Icons apart, and has helped contribute to the business’ quick success.

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28 comments

Andre Spight Jr

April 24 2013, 10:23AM

Glad to finally see the results. Can’t wait to enter this year if you plan on doing it again.

Julie Henderson

April 24 2013, 10:28AM

Congratulations everyone! Some really neat businesses there.

Rick

April 24 2013, 11:51AM

Congrats to all of the winners!!!!

Wish we had heard about the competition in time, but we were too busy with our store launch.

This is really inspiring.

Thank you to Shopify for organizing this contest to show aspiring entrepreneurs the way.

Robert

April 24 2013, 11:52AM

Just out of curiosity, who designed the infograph? What company?

Mark Hayes

April 24 2013, 11:56AM

Robert: We design all our infographics in-house. One of our talented designers (@Warren on Twitter) designed this one.

Thomas Holmes

April 24 2013, 01:16PM

This competition is truly brilliant.

10,000 stores. That’s a big city’s worth of stores. Incredible :-)

Congratulations to the winners and all those who took part!

Ted S

April 24 2013, 01:19PM

55 million is damn impressive all things considered. Congratulations to the winning team, mentors and all involved.

Michael Parker

April 24 2013, 01:21PM

Congratulations guys!

Thanks to Shopify for being such a big driving force behind innovation and enterprise. You guys are awesome!

Chris

April 24 2013, 01:36PM

Congrats to everyone – especially GameKlip. I know this product went from conception to completion very quickly and it is amazing it achieved huge sales so quickly!

Jane

April 24 2013, 01:59PM

What Debbie from GoldieBlox is doing is, in a word, epic. All I can say is wow.

Trevor

April 24 2013, 05:34PM

Congrats to all the winners, some great ideas and unique products! www.theonestore.com

Leon

April 24 2013, 05:40PM

Will there be a scoreboard published showing how well each of our stores did in the competition?

Mark Hayes

April 24 2013, 05:55PM

Thanks for all the support everyone. All the stores deserve a HUGE congratulations!

Leon: Out terms of use don’t allow us to publish individual store sales and its important that we respect our stores privacy. So, no.. we won’t be publishing anything that shows how individual stores did.

Jennifer

April 24 2013, 10:53PM

Congratulations to the winners! I love SkinnyMeTea…what a fun idea. As a new Shopify shop owner, it’s encouraging to see other shops that are making it. Way to go!

Gretta van Riel

April 25 2013, 12:18AM

A HUGE thank you to the ever helpful team at Shopify… You have been a pleasure to work with and we’re all super excited at the SkinnyMe office today! You’ve made our year :)

Gretta van Riel
Founder
SkinnyMe tea
www.skinnymetea.com.au

Jordan

April 25 2013, 12:38PM

This is an awesome competition! Where can I find info about joining in this year? Just started my store and would love some feedback… www.socksub.com

Ollie

April 25 2013, 03:33PM

Amazing competition guys and congratulations to all the winners :) Nice infographic too, very pretty.

I Would really appreciate it if you guys could check out our shopify store www.icollectionshop.com

Thanks!

Brenda Owens

April 26 2013, 01:42PM

Shopify continue to blow me away with their innovation, quality of service and amazing level of customer support.

As a new Shopify customer I am sooo happy with my decision to go with Shopify – you guys rock!

Brenda
www.petblessings.com

Nella

April 27 2013, 05:47AM

Thank you team Shopify! Being apart of something so amazing as yourself and this competition has been a pleasure. Here at fresh-tops our whole staff is excited for our future and shopify.

Nella
Fresh-Tops
www.fresh-tops.com

Forrest

April 30 2013, 11:54AM

This is really great to see. Thanks to Shopify for the great ideas and encouraging people to get motivated during tough economic times.

I am super excited about the next Build-A-Business. Will Shopify do it again? When?

Naresh Kumar

May 02 2013, 09:24AM

Congrats to everyone who participated.

Shopify Guys,

Are you planning to hold this competition this year too? Any estimated dates?

Thanks!

Ernest

May 06 2013, 05:43AM

Appreciate sharing your experiences and thoughts. This is very helpful.
http://www.getcliqup.com

FRANK

May 06 2013, 05:55AM

I am very happy to helpfull team at shopify thank you.
http://www.getcliqup.com

Ernest

May 06 2013, 05:57AM

Appreciate sharing your experiences and thoughts. This is very helpful.
http://www.getcliqup.com

Jill

May 08 2013, 05:00PM

First, congrats to all the winners! This is a HUGE accomplishment and you should be very proud of yourselves. The Infographic is also very impressive. As I’m sure all of these businesses can agree, social media is a key component in the success of ecommerce stores. I thought this blog post may be beneficial http://content.infotrustllc.com/infotrust-blog/bid/275051/The-Importance-of-Social-Media-in-e-Commerce. Very interesting content and helpful to those up and coming ecommerce sites!

VarStreet Inc

May 15 2013, 03:02AM

Congratulations to everyone!!! Social media plays a major role for e-commerce stores. Check out this website http://bit.ly/16dM8rs which provides all the E-commerce software solutions under one roof.

Renee

August 12 2013, 12:50PM

Shopify Team, will there be a 4th Annual Build-A-Business Competition? Please don’t leave us hanging and waiting in vain! Any info is appreciated :o)